NASCAR: Alarming Cup Series points trend developing?

It took until the third race of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season to see the winner and the driver who scored the most points be one in the same.

Thanks to the introduction of stages in 2017, the concept of “winning is everything” isn’t always true anymore in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Of course, winning is still the most important part of the sport. There’s no better feeling that staving off the rest of the competition, and winning a regular season race is almost always a sure ticket to the playoffs.

And winning as a championship eligible driver in any round of the playoffs is a sure ticket to the next round.

However, unlike in other sports — even other forms of motorsport — not all the points are paid at the end of the race.

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Points are paid at the end of the race, starting with 40 for the winner. 35 points are paid to the second place finisher, and there is a one-point decrease for each position down to 36th. The drivers who finish in 36th or lower all score one point.

But they are also paid at the end of the first two stages, starting with 10 for the winner. There is a one-point decrease for each position down to 10th place. The drivers who finish in 11th or lower do not score any points.

So theoretically, the 16th place finisher could score more points than the race winner — and the winner is not even guaranteed to finish the race in the top 10 in points scored!

The start of the season has illustrated this somewhat alarming concept perfectly. Neither race winner has scored the most points in his victory.

Michael McDowell won the season-opening Daytona 500 and ended the race in a fifth place tie in the point standings. It was third place finisher Austin Dillon who scored the most points in the event, although that did include points from the Bluegreen Vacations Duels.

Even excluding those races, however, it would have been fifth place finisher Denny Hamlin who scored the most points.

Christopher Bell then won the second race on the Daytona International Speedway road course. He scored the fourth most points of any driver in this race. Joey Logano and Hamlin tied for the top spot after finishing in second and third place, respectively.

William Byron won the third race at Homestead-Miami Speedway to become the first driver to win a race and score the most points in that win this season.

Every year, there’s always the argument about whether or not the playoffs are a fair way of determining a champion, and how differently drivers would race if points were what decided who takes home the trophy come November.

But would points even be a fair way of determining anything at this point, given the added strategy presented by the stages?

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At this point, it really doesn’t matter, because everybody is subject to the same rules. No, NASCAR isn’t a stick and ball sport. But it’s also no longer anything like IndyCar or Formula 1 either, and everybody is well aware of that going into each and every race. So while it may be alarming and strange to some, it really doesn’t matter much in the long run.

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